In March, as stay-at-home orders were issued by states around the country, workers at the National Sexual Assault Hotline came to a sobering realization: for the first time ever, half of hotline calls were made by children under the age of 18. In addition to reporting sexual abuse, these callers discussed concerns about their safety […]
Although no one yet knows what the future holds for COVID-19, most experts seem to agree that it isn’t going away anytime soon. Indeed, a new report estimates that the pandemic will likely last about two years. The report, from researchers at the University of Minnesota, draws on information from eight previous flu pandemics going […]
With most Americans staying at home and unable to stick to their usual food and exercise routines, there have been plenty of jokes about gaining the “quarantine 15” during the stay-at-home orders. But new data from Withings, the makers of digital scales, shows that people aren’t gaining much weight — and anyway, say health experts, […]
For all the anticipation around new COVID-19 tests, therapeutics and vaccines, public health experts know that the end of the pandemic will depend also on a low-tech, tried-and-true tactic—contact tracing. Contact tracing sounds simple: alert anyone who has been in contact with an infected person and prevent them from spreading the disease to others. Yet […]
The coronavirus pandemic has led many older adults to postpone medical care, a new survey finds. The University of Chicago survey found that 55% of U.S. adults aged 70 and older experienced a disruption in their medical care during the first month of social distancing. Thirty-nine percent put off non-essential care and 32% delayed primary […]
A group of scientists at Oxford University have already begun clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine, which could be ready by the fall. Around 1,1000 people so far, who are between the ages of 18 and 55 and have not tested positive for COVID-19, have been enrolled in the trial, which began on April 23. […]
The anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine was ineffective when used on patients with the new coronavirus, COVID-19, and linked to a higher death rate, a new study found. The drug was repeatedly touted by President Donald Trump as a COVID-19 treatment in mid-March, but health experts, including Food and Drug Administrator Stephen Hahn, emphasized that it needed […]
Sparse traffic on U.S. roads during the coronavirus pandemic has spawned a spike in speeding and other types of reckless driving, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) says. Here are some examples. Police in Colorado, Indiana, Nebraska and Utah have clocked drivers going more than 100 miles per hour on highways. In Los Angeles, cars […]
Calls to poison control centers regarding exposure to household cleaners and disinfectants have spiked amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report. The report authors found that, from January to March this year, poison control centers received 45,550 calls related to cleaner and disinfectant exposure. That’s up 20% compared with calls over the same […]
In what his family describes as a miracle, emergency trauma surgeon Charles Iliya has recovered from the novel coronavirus after spending a week in a medically induced coma on a ventilator. Iliya, who has worked in the emergency department at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas for 30 years, started to feel sick on March 12 […]
